Is your agency's growth hindered by inefficient processes or outdated tools? Looking for practical advice to optimize your tech stack?
In this article, you'll discover how to streamline operations and leverage AI to boost efficiency.

#1: The Core Tool Categories Every Agency Needs
As a marketing agency owner, having the right tools is critical for maximizing your team's productivity, increasing profitability, and enabling your agency to scale successfully. However, with so many options available, it can be overwhelming to determine which tools are worth the investment and will deliver the most value for your marketing strategies and unique agency.
According to Melissa Morris, who has over 10 years of experience helping marketing agencies streamline their operations, there are several core categories of tools that every agency owner needs in order to scale effectively:
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM): A CRM handles your sales process and client onboarding. It can automate key functions like generating proposals, securing contracts, and gathering client information through intake forms and questionnaires. Popular CRM options include HubSpot and Dubsado.
- Project Management: Once a client is onboarded, a project management tool enables your team to manage and execute the work efficiently. It allows you to assign tasks, track progress, manage deadlines, and collaborate seamlessly. Effective project management is essential for delivering quality work on time and budget. Top choices for project management tools among agencies include ClickUp, Asana, Monday, and Teamwork.
- Time Tracking: Although sometimes met with resistance from marketing team members, time tracking is essential for understanding team utilization rates, capacity, and profitability. Melissa stresses that agency owners should also be diligent about tracking their own time. “I track all my own time,” she shares. “It will uncover maybe some clients that need a little extra love and attention from us, and we can do what we can to make sure we're getting paid for the extra love and attention.” She recommends using time-tracking tools like Harvest.
- File Storage & Sharing: To keep all your agency's assets organized and accessible, you need a reliable file storage and sharing solution. Tools like Google Drive or Dropbox make it easy to store, manage, and collaborate on files across your team and with clients.
- Scheduling: An online scheduling tool streamlines the process of booking meetings and appointments, both internally and with clients. Tools like Calendly and Acuity are popular choices.
- Communication: Effective communication is the lifeblood of any agency. Email remains a staple, while video conferencing tools like Zoom and instant messaging platforms like Slack keep everyone connected in real time.
While a CRM, project management tool, time tracking, and scheduling often trip agency owners up regarding selection and implementation, Melissa emphasizes the importance of having a dedicated, best-in-class tool for each key function rather than forcing a single tool to do everything.
“I wanted to touch on those categories there, the CRM, the project management tool, a time tracker, and a scheduler, because I feel like these are the ones that start to trip agency owners up, and where I see them maybe using a CRM as a project management tool or vice versa, or, you know, completely neglecting one of these and thinking we don't need it because they really don't understand how powerful it can be in their business,” Melissa explains.
#2: How to Select the Best Tools for Your Agency
With so many tools available within each key category, how do you determine which ones best fit your specific agency? Melissa provides a few important considerations to guide you in selecting essential tools for streamlining marketing agency operations:
First, look at your agency's specific needs. Before evaluating any tools, thoroughly document your agency's workflows and determine exactly what information and metrics you need to track and report on. This exercise clarifies the specific capabilities and functionality you require from a tool.
“Write down that list of things—this is what I want my tool to be able to do,” Melissa advises. “Even some small things like that, think about what feels really important and then go find the tool that offers that functionality.”
Next, compare multiple tools within each category. Once you're clear on your requirements, evaluate the top tools in each category to assess their fit.
For example, in the CRM category, options range from robust platforms like HubSpot, which work well for larger agencies with dedicated sales teams, to more affordable options like Dubsado or 17hats, which can better fit smaller firms.
Then, consider your reporting and analytics needs. To make data-driven decisions, you need to be able to extract meaningful insights from your tools. Melissa emphasizes the importance of having a time-tracking tool that gives you utilization and capacity data for your team and projects. She also stresses the significance of tracking time against specific clients to assess account profitability. Ensure you can get the specific reports you need to run your agency effectively from whichever tools you select.
Finally, consider aesthetics and user experience when choosing the right tools for your agency. While functionality should be the top priority, the look and feel of tools matter to some agencies more than others.
For example, Melissa notes that “just something about the aesthetics of [Monday] feels a little more fun maybe. Like there's a little bit more going on there visually” compared to more streamlined tools like ClickUp and Asana. When evaluating the user interface and design of tools, consider your team's preferences and the image you want to portray to clients.
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GET THE DETAILSWhile Melissa considers HubSpot a top choice for a robust agency CRM and gravitates toward ClickUp for its powerful project management features, she emphasizes that the “best” tool is ultimately the one that meets your agency's unique requirements and that your team will embrace and use consistently.
#3: Strategies for Successful Tool Adoption and Usage
Investing in the right tools is a critical first step, but the real value comes from getting your team to use them effectively and consistently. Many agency owners face resistance and struggle to adopt new tools and marketing processes team-wide. Melissa shares some proven strategies to set your agency up for success:
- Have empathy and communicate openly. Recognize that learning and adapting to a new tool can feel overwhelming and disruptive for your team. Put yourself in their shoes and be transparent about why you're implementing a new tool and how it will benefit them and the agency. Keep them informed about timelines, expectations, and what kind of support and training will be available.
- Provide ample training—not just once, but ongoing. To set your team up for success, you can't just do a single training session and expect them to master a new tool. Provide multiple, in-depth trainings as you roll out a new tool and make ongoing support and education available.
- Create SOPs and document best practices. To ensure consistency and clarity, develop standard operating procedures (SOPs) for how to use each tool. Provide clear guidelines for things like how to categorize time entries, use certain features within the tool, and your expectations for communication and organization within the tool. Make these SOPs easily accessible to your team as a reference and onboarding resource.
- Hold your team accountable. While it is essential to be empathetic and supportive as your team adapts to a new tool, you must ultimately hold them responsible for using it correctly and consistently. “What you will tolerate will continue,” Melissa warns.
#4: Make the Most of Your Agency's Tool Stack
Once you have the right tools in place and your team is trained and bought in, how do you ensure you're getting maximum value and efficiency from your tool stack?

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Melissa suggests first reviewing your tool stack and usage at least annually. Tools and their capabilities are constantly evolving, as are your agency's needs. At least once a year (but no more than twice a year to limit disruption), conduct a thorough audit of the tools you're using. Review how you use each tool's features, assess your subscription levels, and identify areas where you can consolidate, streamline, or upgrade to gain more value.
“[Look] to see which tier you're on. Are there features and functions that you're not using? Maybe you could downgrade. Maybe something has changed in your business, and there's a functionality you just don't need anymore. Or maybe there are some new ones that they've rolled out; maybe there are features they've added to your tier that you can begin to leverage,” Melissa suggests.
Next, leverage your tools' reporting and analytics capabilities. Your tools capture a wealth of marketing data on your agency's operations and performance. Make it a habit to regularly review and act on your tools' reports and insights, especially regarding key metrics like utilization rates, time spent on admin vs client work, and the profitability of specific clients or service offerings.
“The goal there, I think, would be to get [the data] as automated as possible,” Melissa advises.
Then, think beyond managing work to improving client relationships. While tools like a CRM are essential for sales and client onboarding, don't overlook their potential for strengthening client relationships throughout the engagement. Use your CRM to keep detailed notes on client preferences, communication styles, and important dates. Create automated workflows, check-ins, and reminders to stay top of mind, and use the data you collect to anticipate client needs and personalize your approach.
Finally, stay apprised of and open to new AI-powered capabilities. Many agency tools are rapidly integrating artificial intelligence to introduce powerful new ways to automate repetitive tasks, surface insights, and boost productivity. Melissa encourages agency owners to stay informed about how AI is being incorporated into the tools they use every day. The key is to see AI as an enhancement to human expertise, not a replacement for it.
“I think just continuing to keep an eye on what your current tool stack offers you, what are they doing in terms of new technologies, and what may be available—and can you use that, and is it something that can make your life easier every day?” Melissa advises.
She shares an example of how you can leverage AI-powered writing tools like ChatGPT: “[My client] spends a lot of time writing scripts that are in their tone and their voice and working with them so that they can have these videos. Well, this was a very time-consuming process. So, what she's actually been able to do, though, is through her interviews and conversations with her clients, she's able to put that into chat GPT or [the] AI of choice and prompt it through so that it starts spitting out really good stuff.”
The Future of Agency Tools and Technology
As agencies look to the future, the rapid advancement of AI technology will undoubtedly have a profound impact on agency marketing operations and the tools used to power them. While AI won't render human strategists and creatives obsolete, it will augment their work in meaningful ways:
- Forward-thinking agencies are already using AI-powered writing tools like ChatGPT to help marketing teams generate first drafts and ideas more efficiently. However, they still rely on human experts to refine the output into on-brand, client-ready deliverables.
- Project management and communication tools are integrating AI to intelligently surface relevant project information, past work examples, and conversations in context—reducing time wasted searching for information.
- CRM and business intelligence tools leverage AI to analyze client data, surface actionable insights, and even predict future client needs and opportunities.
With these developments, the key for agency owners is to stay informed about how AI is being integrated into their daily tools and approach these new capabilities with an open yet strategic mindset.
Melissa stresses that successfully adopting AI requires having solid processes and best practices in place first and then looking for opportunities to layer in AI capabilities to enhance efficiency and quality without sacrificing the human touch that clients expect and value.
“I am not a believer that any person's gonna just drop something in ChatGPT and have a blog and social post,” Melissa cautions. “I know there's more to it. [My client] was still doing it. So then we had to dig a little deeper and say, what is your process? What are you thinking about as you're prompting it? How many prompts are you going through? How are you getting it to spit out something that's really quality and effective?”
Melissa Morris is founder of Agency Authority, an operations consultancy that helps business owners maximize their teams, increase their productivity, and grow their profits. You can find her on LinkedIn. Check out more resources here.
Brooke B. Sellas is host of the Marketing Agency Show, a Social Media Examiner production. She is founder and CEO of B Squared Media, an agency that helps people connect, converse, and convert on social media. Her book is called Conversations That Connect. Find her on X and LinkedIn.
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